Kealoha’s defense team faced ‘hopeless task,’ court filing says

Citing the “mountain of evidence” proving Katherine Kealoha’s guilt, federal prosecutors have asked the U.S. Circuit Court to defer considering her motion for a new trial until after she is sentenced in October.

Kealoha, a former deputy prosecutor, and her husband, retired Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha, were convicted last month along with two police officers for conspiring to frame Katherine Kealoha’s uncle for mailbox theft and for attempting to obstruct justice.

Kealoha has since asked the court for a new trial, claiming her court-­appointed attorney, Cynthia Kagiwada, was ineffective. Her motion was filed by attorney Earle Partington, who was hired by Kealoha’s family as co-counsel toward the end of the trial.

But Colin McDonald, an assistant U.S. attorney, said in a court filing Thursday that the verdicts were not the doing of Kealoha’s “hand-­holders,” a reference to her defense counsel, but “the result of her own criminal actions and the mountain of evidence proving them.”

Kealoha’s defense team faced a “hopeless task,” McDonald added.

In asking the court to defer consideration of Kealoha’s motion, McDonald noted the motion is so broad-based and supported by a “bare evidentiary record” that the process to resolve it could take months. That delay, he added, is not in the best interests of justice.

“In essence, Kealoha attacks her counsel’s representation from start to finish, including a running disagreement with counsel’s trial strategy,” McDonald wrote.

Kagiwada has declined to comment on Kealoha’s allegations.

Kealoha is in custody pending her October sentencing.